* * *
“Didn’t get enough sleep last night?” Berga asked, transferring some of his salted go-gos to Flix’s food tray. “Here, eat more.”
Flix hadn’t slept well since the morning he’d returned home to find Aneski gone. That’s what he’d wanted, yet for some reason, he’d been uneasy ever since. Almost as though he’d forgotten something but couldn’t quite put his finger on what it was. The dreams had haunted him every time he so much as closed his eyes, memories of when the two of them had been younger, before Russ and the funeral and everything had imploded.
If that weren’t bad enough, he could literally feel the energy building up inside of him again, too soon for that sort of thing to become an issue. There was no reason for it he could think of, and it was making him nervous.
“You look like shit,” Kaz snorted from the opposite side of the table where he was currently seated next to his cousin.
Baikal tapped his fingers on the table, acting as though he wasn’t bothered by the chatter of the rest of the school cafeteria. They’d met for lunch between classes, but none of them seemed to be in the mood for hanging out.
“What’s got you two so distracted?” Flix asked, trying to flip the conversation away from himself. Yesterday, he’d gone to Void Manor and been told about how things had been goingwith the Brumal and Baikal’s business when he’d been away. The least shocking bit of information had been about how the Shepards were laying low.
Considering their leader had been too busy fucking Flix, that was a given.
The most shocking?
In his absence, apparently, Kazimir Ambrose had named an Onus.
As if timed, Kaz’s multi-slate went off and he grinned when he saw the message.
“That Nate?” Flix wasn’t sure how he felt about the two of them together, but then again…He didn’t really get a say in who either of them dated. It was weird though. The Nate Narek he’d known was too much of the good Samaritan type to get involved with a Brumal member, but somehow he’d ended up with Kaz? “I still don’t—”
“Watch yourself, Flixie,” Kazimir cut him off, still staring at his device like a love-sick puppy despite his harsh tone.
Don’t try to talk to him about Nate, is what he meant.
“Well, guess I don’t have to help him with his bike anymore, at least,” Flix stated, only for Kaz to quirk a brow.
“He’s still racing.”
“You’re letting him race?”
“Why would I stop him?” Kazimir truly looked confused. “He enjoys it.”
“It’s dangerous,” Baikal said, sipping from his drink. All this time, however, his gaze had remained steady on Flix, almost as though he’d spotted something the others hadn’t.
Was he suspicious? Did he know where Flix really was all this time?
“I don’t need to control him outside the bedroom any more than I already do,” Kaz snorted.
“Lovely.” Baikal shook his head.
“I have to go.” Kazimir stood, leaving his half-empty tray on the table for one of them to deal with. “Later.”
“Don’t forget the meeting—”
“Yeah, yeah.” He waved and headed toward the exit, too distracted with his multi-slate to notice either the people who instantly gave him a wide berth or those who stared longingly from their seats.
Kaz was probably the most outwardly nasty of them all, yet people still flocked to him because of his pretty face and his connections. His father was wealthy and therefore Kazimir was also, and he wasn’t above flaunting his coin when the need arose to one-up someone.
Before Baikal had taken the throne from his dad last semester, he’d been considered the prince of the Brumal, which meant he’d had a Satellite. They still called themselves that, but if Kal ever had kids they’d need to change it, since his child would start to form their own Satellite whose goal would be to aid and protect.
There were five of them, Flix, Berga, Kazimir, Saint, and Yuze. They’d been together through thick and thin for most of their adolescent lives. They’d lucked out and were all considered friends—not all Satellites had that. They knew each other better than most, especially considering they had to keep secrets from the rest of the world in order to protect the Brumal and themselves.
“You aren’t going to try and stop him?” Baikal asked then, motioning with his chin over his shoulder in the direction Kaz had gone.
Flix recognized it was a leading question, and maybe it was the lack of sleep or the odd why he’d been feeling, but he couldn’t for the life of him see which direction it was going. Opting to play it safe, he merely shrugged a single shoulder and sipped from his juice carton.
